Calls mount to ban France’s ‘violent’ Jewish Defence League

[shaayecanaan]

Pressure is mounting on France to ban a far-right Jewish group, described as violent and extreme by critics, following its involvement in clashes at a pro-Palestinian protest in Paris and the jailing of two of its supporters over a bomb plot.

The Jewish Defence League, an international organisation dedicated to protecting Jews from anti-Semitism by “whatever means necessary”, has a long history of controversy and alleged acts of terrorism and has been outlawed in both the US and Israel.

But the latest conflict between Israel and Hamas militants in the Gaza Strip – and the passions it has stirred in support of both sides in France in recent weeks – has cast a new spotlight on the French division of the group, known as the Ligue de Défense Juive (LDJ).

An ‘extremist and racist association’

On July 13th, members of the group clashed with pro-Palestinian protesters outside a synagogue at a demonstration in Paris, sparking outrage in France and fears of a resurgence in anti-Semitism in France.

But witnesses later accused the LDJ of having provoked the violence.

http://www.france24.com/en/20140729-calls-mount-ban-france-violent-jewish-defence-league/

[JI7]

1. it's not one or the other, horrible things were said, synagogues were attacked

both are wrong.

[Spider Jerusalem]

2. Sure it is

because France in common with most other European countries has laws against incitement to racial and religious hatred. It's a matter for police, not for vigilantes. Holocaust denial is a crime, in France (see here: http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hate_speech_laws_in_France ). An anti-Semitic French "comedian" called Dieudonne was banned from performing by French courts for promoting hate speech.

And the JDL is banned in the USA and regarded as a terrorist organisation. (This is Meir Kahane's group, by the way. The same JDL that Baruch Goldstein, perpetrator of the Hebron massacre, was a member of.)

[shaayecanaan]

4. funny how Jewish terrorists are called "vigilantes"

The person that the JDL tried to car bomb was a left wing Jewish commentator. How is that being a vigilante?

When three Israeli Jews kidnapped an Arab and burned him to death a month ago, Netanyahu admonished people not to take "the law into their own hands". Does that mean people should leave it to the army and police to burn Arabs to death? It's quite a candid revelation if so.

[Spider Jerusalem]

5. I was referring to the violence and attacks on synagogues...

as being a matter for the police and not for vigilantism (not the JDL's more overtly terroristic actions).

[shaayecanaan]

6. sure

but the impression that you would get if you only read the articles around here is that there are plenty of Arab hooligans but no Jewish ones.

Its not just France either. Italy is having problems as well:-

http://www.haaretz.com/jewish-world/jewish-world-news/.premium-1.602649

[JustAnotherGen]

9. Can you give us some more text

From the article? That site has a pay wall and I'd like more info to google it - haven't seen anything in the Print edition of Republicca.

[shaayecanaan]

10. here you go

Tensions are reportedly rising in Rome, where two separate violent incidents between pro-Israelis and pro-Palestinians erupted in the past two days, Ha’aretz reported.

Eight Palestinian supporters have been hospitalized, two with serious injuries, after allegedly being assaulted by pro-Israeli people enraged by the kidnapping and murder of three Israeli teens on the West Bank.

When the news of the Israeli teens’ deaths was reported Monday night, the Jewish community held a memorial prayer service in the old Ghetto. After the service, a number of the participants formed a mob and marched toward the Palestinian Authority office across the Tiber River from the Ghetto.

A group of street vendors shouted pro-Palestinian slogans at the marching Jews. The Jews responded by assaulting them. Seven of the vendors, one of them a woman, were hospitalized.

Some members of the Jewish community reportedly fear the assaults may be the work of self-appointed Ghetto patrols and see the situation inside the Jewish community as deteriorating.

“The merciful understatement of the newspapers – ‘pro-Israel youths beat…’ – [actually] alludes to a trend of squads that need to be stopped immediately,” Gad Lerner, a popular Italian-Israeli TV anchor often critical of pro-Israel hardliners, tweeted after Italian media chose not to identify the Jewish assailants as Jews.

Inside the Jewish community, right wing pro-Israel activists previous assaulted a woman at a book event in the city and tried to block the leftist author from speaking.

In January, four pro-Palestinian activists were allegedly beaten by what they described as a gang of “about fifteen young men carrying baseball bats.” The incident took place inside the Ghetto. The pro-Palestinian youths were walking home after a night out, saw a poster commemorating Ariel Sharon, who had just passed away, and ripped it off the wall.

[mwrguy]

3. Good. Ban them, jail them, get rid of them.

France doesn't need that kind of violent incitement.

[Nye Bevan]

7. In the US we don't generally "ban" or "outlaw" groups such as this.

So I don't know why the article makes this claim. Obviously terrorism and violence are illegal but "banning groups" is more of a European thing.

http://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Jewish_Defense_League_Chapters

[shaayecanaan]

8. the JDL is designated a "former terrorist organisation"

by homeland security and a terrorist group by the FBI.

Their last attempted terrorist attack was on congressman Darrell Issa. Since then they have been operating at a very low level.

The JDL is not designated as a terrorist group in Canada so they operate openly in Toronto for example.

[JI7]

11. they actually tried to carry out a terrorist attack in the US so that could be why they were banned